by BETH KERY
“Scourge revenants? Were you attacked again?” She searched Saint’s long, whipcord lean body for wounds before she went back to examining his bleeding arm. Saint stopped her just as he had before.
“I’m okay. Were you two about ready to eat?” he asked, nodding at the smoking barbecue.
“Yes, but that’ll wait—”
“Go ahead and start your dinner,” Saint said. He glanced over at Aidan, who was listening in on the conversation. Christina knew he didn’t want her to make a big deal about his wound and worry the boy. “I’ll just go clean this up and be out in a second.”
By the time Saint came out of the coach house, Aidan had finished his second burger and was starting on a third. Christina wished she knew where he put it.
Alison had seemed quiet and distracted at first, but had rallied. She now ate with as much gusto as Aidan. Christina longed to ask the girl what had happened in the tunnels, but guessed from the girl’s pale face that it wasn’t something that should be discussed over supper.
“Do you want to eat?” Christina asked Saint when he straddled the picnic table bench next to her. For some reason, she blushed when she met his gaze. She glanced away, only to notice Alison watching them steadily as she chewed her hamburger.
“Yeah, I’ll get it,” Saint replied. “I want you three to stay up at the main house tonight,” he said when he came back with his food.
“Why?” Christina asked. “I thought you said it was safe here.”
“It is.” He stepped over the bench with his long legs and sat. Christina noticed he’d neatly bandaged his upper arm. “It’d be even safer up at Whitby. I’d rather you were close to me.”
Christina’s eyes went wide when she once again saw the undisguised heat in his gaze as he regarded her. What had happened? He’d been so guarded against her when he left earlier with Alison.
“Can we, Mom?”
Aidan’s excited question brought her back from the depths of Saint’s eyes. “I…I think…”
“It’ll be better, Christina. I promise.”
Christina forced her gaping mouth shut as Saint’s underlying meaning struck her consciousness. A simmering sensation rippled from her lower belly to her sex. She clamped her thighs tightly together. “All right, if you think it’s best.”
She avoided Saint’s blatantly erotic gaze for the rest of dinner, feeling as self-conscious about looking at him while Aidan and Alison were present as she would had he sat there naked. That’s how transparent, how raw…how undefended she was when it came to him.
If anything, staying up at Whitby should give her the opportunity to get Saint alone to ask him what had happened in the tunnels today.
And to find out why he’d so drastically changed his opinion about them being lovers.
They stared at each other from opposite sides of the elevator, the silence broken only by the low hum of the motor. Aidan had been asleep now for well over an hour. He and Alison had watched a comedy in Saint’s high-tech entertainment studio while Saint and Christina sat outside on the balcony. Neither of them spoke as the sounds of the movie and Aidan’s and Alison’s laughter filtered through the opened French door. In fact, Christina and Saint hadn’t said more than three words to each other since dinner…not out loud, anyway.
But the air between them seemed to crackle with unspoken emotion. Just when he thought he couldn’t stand the unbearable tension a second longer, Christina had reached out and taken his hand. He’d felt her trembling. It had been hell to wait until Alison and Aidan went to bed, but it had been delicious too, surviving the last minutes of what he’d once thought would be a never-ending torment.
Knowing that torture was about to come to a glorious end.
“Why did you change your mind?” she asked softly as the elevator sped them down to his subterranean bedroom.
“I found something today in the deep tunnels after Teslar and the Scourge revenants fled. Actually, Teslar discovered it before me, during all of his digging—a crystal chamber deep within the bedrock.” He shook his head, still amazed by the discovery. “I’ve never known anything like it. A crystal chamber within a layer of limestone bedrock? That limestone used to be the floor of the earth’s ocean, ages ago. That chamber is more ancient than I can even begin to imagine. Who knows how deep it was inside the earth when it formed? Those crystals amplify the earth’s vitessence to incredible levels.”
The elevator slowed and stopped. He reached and grasped Christina’s upper arm when she started to walk out the opened doors. “The strength of it is such that I could live off that energy alone, Christina. Do you understand what that means?”
Her green eyes looked enormous in her face as she looked up at him. “That we can be together?”
“I will never again have to feed,” he whispered, awe flavoring his tone. “I can metabolize the earth’s energy alone and survive. I no longer need to be a parasite on human beings.”
Her full lower lip trembled as she stared up at him.
“And…and that’s what you want?”
“Yes. Gods, yes. It means I will be able to control my hunger when it comes to you. I can touch you…bring you pleasure, and not submit to my need to feed. We’ll still need to be careful—I don’t want to harm you—but the crystal chamber will help me with my control.”
“I don’t believe you’d ever harm me, Saint. Making love isn’t about always being in control.”
“It has to be for me, Christina.”
The elevator door started to close. He braced it open and pulled her into his bedroom. He could count on one hand the number of women he’d invited into his private sanctuary since he built Whitby one hundred and nineteen years before. Saint couldn’t have recalled any one of their faces if he tried while Christina stared up at him with a mixture of desire and uncertainty in her green eyes.
His need swelled, confusing him for a moment. The energy he’d absorbed in the chamber had satisfied him greatly. It wasn’t the equivalent of bathing in Christina’s vitessence, drinking her blood, or plunging his cock into her last night, but he had felt energized after standing in the crystal chamber for only ten minutes.
“I want to be clear. I can’t be what you want, Christina… I can’t fulfill your fantasies. We’re still far too different to be a normal couple. I can’t feel the same way a human man could for you. I can’t give you what you deserve. But if you choose it, we can give one another pleasure. Is that what you want?”
Her lower lip trembled, but her gaze looked hot and wanting when she stared at his mouth and then dropped her gaze to his chest.
“That’s all you’re willing to give me? Sex?”
Something tightened in his chest. He stepped toward her and cupped her cheek. “I would give you everything if I could. But I’m hollow…empty. If you refuse my flesh, then I’ve nothing else to offer you.”
“Saint,” she said in a choked voice. She shook her head and a tear spilled down her cheek.
“Shhh, don’t cry,” he whispered. “I never allowed myself to hope for the possibility of being your lover, not just for one night…but for many nights to come. For me, it’s nothing less than a miracle.” He leaned down and touched her only with his mouth, rubbing their lips together softly, languorously. The tip of his tongue traced her lower lip, glorying in her singular flavor. Her tongue met his in a questing, sweet caress. His mouth closed over hers.
“There has never been a day since I laid eyes on you that I haven’t burned for you,” he said gruffly when they separated to draw air.
She encircled his waist with her arms and pressed close. Not only his nose, but every cell in his being absorbed her singular essence.
“I’ll say yes to having sex, but I’m not sure when I’m going to forgive you for ignoring me.”
He smiled as he cradled her jaw with both hands. “Accuse me of what you will, but never believe for a second that I ignored you. As easy for a fish to ignore water.” He leaned down over her. “You entranced me from t
he moment I first saw you.”
“Past time you surrender then,” she whispered.
His nostrils flared greedily to capture her scent before he fell on her mouth. He lifted her body against him and carried her to the bed. Her eyes blinked open and she started.
“What is that?” she whispered in confusion as she stared at the complicated leather harness and pulley system above the bed.
“I told you that I have to use special equipment to maintain control.”
Christina said nothing. The troubled expression she wore faded as he undressed her. When she lay before him completely naked, he just stared at her for a long moment. As he had last night, he laid his hand across her abdomen, experimenting with the idea of cherishing her without absorbing her vitessence. It felt strange to be so intensely sexually aroused and yet not feel the building compulsion to feed.
“Saint,” she whispered, holding up her arms for him.
He blinked and lowered himself, pulling her up to the head of the bed and lying beside her. She ran her hands over his shoulders and back. She threaded her fingers through his hair and pressed the tips to his skull. When she pulled up his T-shirt and slid her palm along his bare skin, he shivered and grabbed her wrist, pushing it down next to her head.
“I want to take off your clothes,” she protested.
“Not yet,” he muttered gruffly. He leaned down and brushed his cheek against the exquisitely soft skin of her lower breast. He tilted his head and ran his closed lips over the succulent curve. She groaned and delved her fingers into his hair. He continued to nuzzle her fragrant skin, entranced by the sensation of her flesh. When she took the shell of his ear between thumb and forefinger and squeezed rhythmically, he growled and sat up.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he dove for a bedside table and pulled open a drawer. He pulled out a long, red silk scarf and came up to a kneeling position.
“I’m going to restrain you. I want to touch you everywhere and your hands are driving me crazy.”
She looked doubtful, but he saw arousal in her eyes as she considered the red scarf. He coaxed her by sliding the silk in a sensual caress against the side of her waist, along her belly and over one beading nipple.
“All right,” she agreed shakily. “But I still don’t think making love is all about maintaining control. Even for you, Saint.”
“Especially for me,” he corrected grimly.
Chapter Fourteen
He arranged her arms over her head and bound her wrists together, then tied them both to the wooden posts on the headboard. Once he’d finished, he lay beside her and ran his fingertips along the side of her torso, from hip to just below her armpit. She gasped and shivered. Her nipples pulled tight. Unable to stop himself, he leaned down and enclosed one of the hard crests in his mouth.
She writhed beneath him, but he spread both hands on the side of her ribcage and kept her captive while he rolled his tongue over her beaded flesh and suckled her. Never was there flesh sweeter than Christina’s. The sound of her blood pounding in her veins swelled in his ears. Even though he wanted to suck on her breasts more, he forced himself lower, tasting the skin at the sides of her body and nipping lightly at her waist and belly.
When he lowered to her slender, lithesome thighs, she squirmed. He held her hips immobile, kissing and tonguing the satiny skin between her legs. She cried out in rising excitement when he flicked his tongue just inches away from her pussy, capturing her flavor on his tongue.
It was a dream come true, Saint thought as he spread her thighs and drank in the sight of Christina’s glossy, exposed pussy. How many nights had he lain in this bed, alone and suffering, and imagined what she’d look like naked, restrained and spread wide for him. A shudder of excitement went through him. He came up on his knees and grabbed for one of the leather harnesses, drawing it downward.
“Saint?” she whispered in confusion when he slipped a leather loop over her foot.
“Shhh, it’s all right. I’m just going to restrain your legs. It’ll be more comfortable for you. You can just relax and give into your pleasure,” he explained as he slid the other loop over her foot. When he’d finished restraining her in the harness, her legs were spread wide, her feet suspended several feet off the bed. Her dark pink, glistening pussy made a striking contrast to her pale thighs. His cock lurched furiously at the sight.
He gave a guttural groan and dipped his head between her legs. He inhaled the scent of her desire.
“Oh God, please…please don’t torture me,” she begged hoarsely.
He glanced up and saw the desperation in her eyes, her vividly pink cheeks, her flushed breasts, and distended nipples. The sight was so compelling he couldn’t stop staring as he leaned down and worked his tongue between her juicy labia. He growled low as her sublime taste flooded his awareness.
How could she think he wanted to torture her? The only thing he ever wanted to see on her beautiful face was happiness, contentment…and profound pleasure.
She cried out sharply as he became more demanding in his stimulation, making her clit his captive, gently sucking her and then moving his head slightly from side to side, vibrating the sensitive kernel of flesh. She pulled against her restraints, her body going rigid as she strained for climax. When her cries became an unceasing keen, he released her and lapped at her, wanting to savor her desire.
He noticed that she watched him. He heard her heart beating frantically with his powerful hearing, knew the instant it perfectly synchronized with his own. The only other sound that could be heard in the silent room was the moist, clicking noise of wet flesh against wet flesh.
Christina groaned in torment and lifted her hips off the bed, trying to increase the stimulation. Saint raised his head and clenched his teeth. Before she knew what he was about, he’d sat up to a kneeling position. He spread his hands on her ass and lifted her to his mouth. He plunged his tongue into her slit again and again, his arms flexing as he brought her against his mouth in a rhythmic fucking motion. She screamed and went rigid. He lashed her clit with his stiffened tongue, hard and ruthless, and she broke in orgasm.
Centuries of experience and a preternatural knowledge helped him to know every female’s unique physiology, assisted him in gleaning what to do to prolong her orgasm. He instinctively reached for Christina’s bare feet, scratching the soles lightly as he continued to tongue her. Her feet jerked in his hands as she climaxed, but he continued to stimulate her. She screamed louder, her body shuddering even more forcefully.
“That’s right,” he whispered next to the skin of her belly when he’d finally worked every last orgasmic tremor out of her body and she’d sunk to the bed in exhaustion. “That’s how I always want you to give yourself to me.” He felt her shiver when he scraped his teeth against her ribs. He came up on his hands and knees, working his way up her body, tasting her flesh as he went along, before he lowered to her lush mouth. “Taste how sweet you are.”
She lapped at his lips, which were moist from her juices, then sunk her tongue into his mouth, kissing him hungrily.
Saint groaned as her essence flooded his awareness. He tore at the button fly and shoved his jeans down his thighs. His arousal was so sharp that he didn’t even pause to remove the soft leather thong that held his sheathed heartluster next to his thigh. He took his cock in his hand and arrowed it toward Christina’s wet cunt. At the last second, however, he reared up over her and reached for the mechanism above the bed. He turned two separate wheels and watched as her thighs spread even wider and her hips rose off the bed. He studied her face carefully for any signs of discomfort.
Instead, he saw only undiluted lust in her green eyes.
He palmed his cock and pressed it to her slit, holding her hips steady for his penetration.
“You’re dripping wet for me, aren’t you?” he murmured before he flexed his hips and drove into her. She screamed. He snarled at the cruelty of the pleasure of being fully encased in her tight, warm clasp. He grabbed her suspe
nded hips and pushed her back even as he drew his cock out of her. Then he flexed and slid deep once again.
A sort of wild, carnal fury overcame him as he fucked Christina and watched her vitessence spark and flash around her beautiful body. He used his arms to optimally maximize the friction of his thrusting hips, pulling her onto his cock as he pounded into her again and again.
Their combined heartbeat throbbed so loudly in his ears that he heard Christina’s cries and screams of pleasure as if through thick insulation. Her muscles constricted and liquid heat surged around his cock. He clamped his eyes shut and endured the exquisite torture of being surrounded by her spasming pussy. He thrust forcefully, their smacking flesh signaling the moment when he released the energy barrier he’d erected, allowing her powerful energy to surge into his cells.
He fucked her as if he’d find salvation at her furthest reaches. Time stood still as he agonized and gloried in Christina’s fires yet again.
“Saint.”
Christina’s plaintive cry pierced the haze of his rabid lust. He blinked, focusing on her face. He paused with his aching cock thrust halfway into her.
The ugly realization hit that he’d been wild…even more out of control than he had been last night, during the storm.
“Fuck,” he shouted hoarsely. His flesh shuddered when he withdrew. He collapsed on the bed next to her, panting like he’d just run uphill for miles.
What had gone wrong? He couldn’t comprehend it. He’d absorbed his fill of the earth’s powerful vitessence. The need to feed shouldn’t come again until tomorrow.
But he’d been consuming Christina’s energy just now. True, he hadn’t felt compelled to drink her blood, but he’d lost control while her sublime sex juices had been covering his tongue and sliding down his throat. The next thing he knew, he’d been crazed and fucking her like a madman.
“Saint?” Christina asked shakily. The volume of her voice rose when he remained with his eyes shut. “Saint, what’s wrong?”
